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Eagles face defending champs in first round

Summertown certainly won’t get to ease back into the Class A State Baseball Tournament.

A year after having their season end in the District 12-A Tournament, the Eagles (31-5) return to the Spring Fling to face three-time defending state champion Decatur County Riverside (29-6) following the 4 p.m. opening game Tuesday at Middle Tennessee Christian School in Murfreesboro.

“We’re just happy to be there with an opportunity to see what happens,” said Summertown coach Greg Burleson, who has led the Eagles to the state tournament in five of the past eight seasons. “(Riverside) is a quality team, and you know they are going to be very fundamental. We will definitely have to play our best baseball to give those guys a game.”

This is just the second meeting between the teams since Summertown defeated Riverside 3-2 in the 2009 state championship game. The Panthers have won 13 of their last 14 state tournament games since losing to the Eagles in the 2009 title game.

However, Riverside is now being led by first-year coach Eric Quinn, who came to the Panthers from Trinity Christian.

“I can’t say enough about these kids, these coaches, this town and this community,” Quinn told The Jackson Sun following the Panthers’ 8-1 sectional win over Huntingdon. “This is a special place, and I am just blessed to be here.”

Riverside is led by a trio of hitters in Alex Whitwell, Clint Fisher and Luke Ware as well top pitcher Jordan Goff.

“We set this goal in January to get back to the state, and these guys battled and played hard all season,” Quinn said. “We have guys back from last year that can play, and they believe they can play and want to get back. They put the work in.”

Burleson said he was surprised by his team’s success as he expected to have another rebuilding year like 2012, but he felt like his player’s hard work and determination made this year’s state tournament run possible.

“They’ve spent a lot of hours here at the field,” Burleson said. “They’ve worked throughout the summer, before school and after school.”

Leading the charge for the youthful Eagles is Nathaniel Morrison, who is the team’s top pitcher and one of their leading hitters.

“He’s been our key pitcher and hitter,” Burleson said. “He’s kind of a leader on the team.”

Summertown has also gotten great production from Konnor Ambrose, Curt Ambrose and Austin Mathews.

In the first game in Summertown’s half of the bracket Silverdale (26-2) faces Rockwood (31-5) at 4 p.m. In the lower half of the bracket at Riverdale High in Murfreesboro, Knoxville Grace (14-11) faces Cornersville (19-16) at 4 p.m., followed by Friendship Christian (29-6) meeting Scotts Hill (19-11).

“When you get to this point, everybody is good,” Burleson said. “It’s a fresh start, and you never know how anybody is going to react when you get there.”

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